About
Also known as: Poxies, The Pixies
Few bands have punched above their weight quite like the Pixies. Formed in Boston in 1986, they built a sound around violent dynamic swings between hushed passages and full on noise, with Black Francis writing surreal lyrics about aliens, incest and biblical carnage over Joey Santiago's slashing guitar. Their early records, Surfer Rosa and Doolittle, barely dented the US charts but were enormous in the UK and Europe, and their influence quietly reshaped rock: Kurt Cobain openly admitted that Smells Like Teen Spirit was his attempt to write a Pixies song. After breaking up in 1993 and reuniting in 2004, they kept going through lineup changes, with Paz Lenchantin eventually becoming a full member after Kim Deal's departure. With Lenchantin they made Head Carrier, Beneath the Eyrie and Doggerel. In 2024 Emma Richardson, formerly of Band of Skulls, took over on bass, and the band released their ninth album, The Night the Zombies Came.
